Utah firm Spero focused on helping Tongans find work at home, curtailing migration

PLEASANT GROVE — For many Tongans, the route to financial success comes from leaving the Polynesian nation to find work elsewhere.

That can take a toll on families, though, and a new Utah company, Spero, is teaming with BYU-Pathway Worldwide to help the online school's students in Tonga find work locally, enabling them to stay with family.

"The companies are able to find labor that is skilled, that's English-speaking, and it costs less than hiring American workers," said Grant Howe, marketing manager for the Pleasant Grove-based firm. "At the same time, the Tongan people are able to stay on the islands with their families and finally earn living wages without needing to leave."

The Team Tonga operation is new, but Spero CEO Nate Clegg, inspired by his Pacific Islander neighbors growing up in Utah, hopes to quickly recruit employees in the Pacific Island nation to work remotely for U.S. companies. Team Tonga has created 20-plus jobs so far and aims to create 50 more a month going forward until reaching a goal of 1,000 jobs by 2027.

"There's commercial value to doing this, but for the most part, this is a decision of the heart to go and turn things around," Clegg said.

Around a quarter of the adult population in Tonga is gone six months a year or more for work, typically fruit-picking jobs in New Zealand and Australia, he said, and that can take a toll on the family unit. Spero works with BYU-Pathway Worldwide students in other countries, but Tonga, with a population of around 100,000 people, is a priority.

"You've got all these people leaving. Their kids are left behind. Sometimes they don't even come back, or when they do come back, it's rarely for very long, and then they just go right back to work," Clegg said. "Family and faith come first in Tonga, for sure, and it's taking a real hit on their core identity."

Spero reps traveled to Tonga to launch the initiative, finding an eager base of potential workers. The company recruits students from BYU-Pathway Worldwide, operated through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and has placed people in accounting, computing, sales and marketing jobs.

"This international job has truly changed things for me and my family. It's given us stability we didn't always have before and helped us start planning for a better, more secure future," student Salome Po'uli said in a testimonial supplied by Spero.

The company, essentially a staffing firm, works with companies from Utah and the rest of the United States, finding overseas employees for them and handling payroll and other administrative duties. Companies can get lower-cost labor than available in the United States, though the pay the workers get is typically better than standard local wages. For Spero leaders, meanwhile, the arrangement is more than a financial venture.

Read more:

Multicultural Utah

Looking for more news about the different cultures that call Utah home? Visit our Multicultural Utah section for more stories, events and features.

"Of course we want to grow our businesses. We want it to be successful for us. But more than anything, we genuinely just want to change the business market conditions in Tonga," and improve life for people in the nation, Clegg said.

Related topics